Ball Don't Lie

A look around the league and the Web that covers it. It's also important to note that the rotation order and starting nods aren't always listed in order of importance. That's for you, dear reader, to figure out.

C: Oakley and Allen. COUNTERPROGRAMMING! Transport yourself back in time to 1997 and revisit how awesome young Steph + young KG + older Karl were, all while Nasir and G serenade you.

PF: The Basketball Jones. Trey Kerby breaks out the ol' Kübler-Ross model to walk us through the five stages of dealing with Dwight Howard's free-agent decision: "[...] I’m really counting on getting my Acceptance game on."

SF: All Ball. Lang Whitaker catches up with Washington Wizards point guard John Wall about, among other things, his goals for the upcoming season: "I’m not even trying to make predictions, but I have to get to the playoffs. This is my fourth year, and the point of being a franchise player or a leader, as a point guard, is you have to be known as a winner. I don’t want to be someone who didn’t get their team to the playoffs."

PG: Posting and Toasting. While most of the attention paid to J.R. Smith's game in light of the four-year, $25 million he's about to receive has focused on his trick-or-treat offense, it's also worth considering his defense ... which, as Dylan Murphy shows, is actually better than you might think.